Date: June 12, 2017
Source: University of Konstanz
The study was published in the
journal Nature Ecology and Evolution
on 12 June 2017.
Humans are responsible for the
movement of an increasing number of species into new territories which they
previously never inhabited. The number of established alien species varies
according to world region. What was previously unclear is where the most
established alien species could be found and which factors characterise their
distribution.
An international team consisting of
25 researchers under the leadership of Dr Wayne Dawson from the University of
Durham (United Kingdom), who began his research on this topic in Mark van
Kleunen's research group in Konstanz, created a database for eight animal and
plant groups (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, spiders, ants and
vascular plants) that were found to occur in regions outside of their original
habitat. The study of the distribution of these species led the research team
to identify 186 islands and 423 mainland regions in total. This project allowed
the researchers to illustrate the global distribution of established alien
species within a large number of organism groups for the first time.
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